Christus reprehendit cum comminacione quendam monachum, qui coram rege per Vitas patrum asserebat sponsam esse delusam. Et dicit Dominus, quod illi patres delusi fuerunt, qui superbientes de iusticia sua preferebant se aliis, nolentes obedire viris humilibus.
The Danger of False Discernment
A monk challenges the bride's visions by citing the Lives of the Fathers, prompting a divine rebuke from Christ.
While the bride was present, a monk brought the book Lives of the Fathers before the counselors and the King of Sweden, reading from it that many of the holy fathers were deluded by excessive fasting and a lack of discernment. And so she said she was afraid that the bride might be deceived in the same way. While she was standing there praying afterward, she heard Christ saying to her, "What did that monk say? That many of the saints were deceived?" Truly, that bag of words spoke as he wanted to, but not as he ought to have.
True Wisdom and the Trap of Pride
Christ clarifies that deception arises from pride and disobedience, contrasting the monk's arrogance with the true humility of the saints.
For none of my friends who have loved me wisely have been deceived. But those who grew proud of their own abstinence and justice, preferring themselves to others and refusing to obey humble people—they are the ones who were deceived. And because this monk has used the book of the holy fathers against me, while failing to imitate them himself, I will bring the book of my justice against him; and whoever prides himself on his own wisdom will come before my wisdom, and then he will see in his own conscience that true wisdom isn't found in lofty words, but in a pure conscience and true humility. How far the members of this order have strayed from the footsteps of their father, who was like a builder of broken-down walls and a man walking in the paths of the perfect.
Read the original Latin
Presente sponsa quidam monachus portauit librum Vitas patrum coram consiliariis et rege Suecie legens in eo, quod multi ex sanctis patribus fuerunt delusi ex abstinencia nimia et indiscrecione.
Et ideo dixit se timere, ne forte sponsa similiter illuderetur. Cumque post hec staret ipsa orando, audiuit Christum dicentem sibi: "Quid dixit monachus ille? Quod multi sanctorum fuerunt delusi? Vere iste saccus verborum dixit, sicut voluit, sed non sicut debuit.
Nam nulli amici mei delusi sunt, qui me dilexerunt sapienter. Sed illi, qui superbientes de abstinencia et iusticia sua preferebant se aliis et nolentes obedire humilibus, hii delusi sunt.
Et quia iste monachus portauit librum sanctorum patrum contra me, quorum imitator ipse non est, ideo ego portabo librum iusticie mee contra eum, et qui in sapiencia sua laudatur, veniet coram sapiencia mea et tunc videbit in consciencia sua, quod vera sapiencia non est in verbis sublimibus sed in consciencia pura et humilitate vera.
O quam longe professores ordinis istius recedunt a vestigiis patris sui, qui fuit sicut edificator sepium diruptarum et sicut vir gradiens semitas perfectorum."
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